Imagine this.
The steam engine is a wonderful new creation, as is the phonograph record, the electric lightbulb, the telegraph and the first machine-powered airplane. What else might be on the horizon? Could humans and machines be fused together? Could fantastical mechanical and electrical creations take us to worlds beyond our wildest dreams?
“The Seeker” in Cirque du Soleil’s KURIOS – Cabinet of Curiosities production certainly hopes so. He’s a wide-eyed, gray-haired man in an oversized lab coat whose huge cabinet of curiosities is filled with early 20th century items and his own weird inventions. (A “cabinet of curiosities” is a precursor to the museum – a collection of historical relics, works of art, scientific discoveries and travel artefacts.) The Seeker peoples his with robots fashioned from recycled metal and odd objects, a steam-powered “man” with a boiler belly, a fellow whose body is a wooden accordion and a lady with a hoop skirt who receives alpha waves. Not to mention a real lady who is 3.2 feet tall and weighs 39 pounds.
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There’s plenty of time to take in the intricacies of this world before a life-sized locomotive eases onto the stage and a group of eccentrics and performers in steampunk costumes – the “Curiosistanians” – disembark to introduce the Seeker to a world beyond his imagination. Strangely, it’s not the mechanical wonders but the wonders of the human body that inspire us, the Watchers.
As we gaze at the strongman and his acrobatic partner, the aerial bicyclist and the fluid contortionists, we have the feeling we always have at Cirque du Soleil productions as the performers ratchet up the difficulty of their feats: Surely he can’t fling her that high? Surely she isn’t going to ride that bicycle upside down in the air? Surely they aren’t going to bend their bodies into that shape? You can see where they’re planning to go with each act, and yet we are still astonished when they reach the seemingly impossible goal.
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My 12-year-old friend Madison and I were already enthralled when an acrobat began balancing stacked chairs to rise higher and higher toward the ceiling. Then Madison pointed upward, and we saw a string of chairs – an exact double – descend from the ceiling. Of course, they met in the middle. An aviator landed in a lovely little propeller plane and proceeded to balance on piles of balls and cylinders in “Rola Bola.” One of our favorite acts was “Acro Net” where a team of trampoline artists fling themselves into the air and do fantastical somersaults, while beneath them a school of comical men-fish “swim” around. The shirtless aerial strap artists were also wonderful, as were the artists forming the fantastic, if predictable, human pyramid at the end.
I was less enthralled with the yo-yo master and the “theater of hands,” in which an artist moves his fingers to tell a story projected on a hot-air balloon screen.
One of the most wonderful things about Cirque du Soleil is that there’s so much to entertain us while the artisans unobtrusively set the stage for the next act. A violinist may play a rousing tune, or the tiny lady may ride by on a contraption, or robots ineffectively “sweep” the stage. The best interludes are the “invisible circus” directed by a clown, who also has to chase the invisible roaring lion around the tent, and the same clown’s hilarious renditions of a bird and a cat. The cat impression was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, being a cat lover and observer myself. I thought some of the people around us were going to bust a gut laughing.
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The 10-year-old boy in front of us told his parents he “loved everything” and Madison felt the same – with the exception of the 750-pound mechanical hand that she found “really, really creepy.” The publicist said KURIOS could be fun for children as young as 2. That might be a bit of a stretch, especially as the show runs for more than 2.5 hours, but kids of any age would find plenty to look at and there is absolutely nothing risqué, violent or inappropriate in the whole show.
And aren’t we all children in the face of magic?
Picture credits: © Martin Girard
IF YOU GO
Where: The Big Top at Marymoor Park, 6046 West Lake Sammamish Parkway NE, Redmond.
When: Through March 22. Most Tuesdays, all Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m.; some Fridays, 4:30 p.m.; all Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Cost: $33-$146; call for child, youth or family discounts; children younger than 2 are free on a parent’s lap. On-site parking costs $15.
Contact: 1-877-924-7783; cirquedusoleil.com.
Wenda Reed is a Seattle-area writer and theater-lover.
